Honegger: Symphony No. 3 «Liturgique»

After the horrors of the Second World War, Arthur Honegger set about capturing ‘the eternal problems of man’ in his Symphony No 3, Liturgique.

Honegger retained the energy, rhythmic drive and bold colours of his previous orchestral works. But his new symphonic journey from barbarism to hope contained a new sense of peace, ‘a spirit in search of serenity amid all the unrest of our present state’ in the words of the Belgian art critic Arthur Hoéreé.